~~GULFWIRE~~PERSPECTIVES~~OCTOBER 27, 2002~~QATAR'S HEIGHTENEDPROFILE (fwd)

["Clement M. Henry" <chenry@mail.la.utexas.edu>]

Here is a useful summary update on Qatar - but no mention of that recent
attempted coup if it ever happened...
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Date: Wed, 30 Oct 2002 09:19:57 -0600
From: GulfWire e-Newsletters <GulfWire@arabialink.com>
To: "<<GULFWIRE>>" <GulfWire2@arabialink.com>
Subject: ~~GULFWIRE~~PERSPECTIVES~~OCTOBER 27, 2002~~QATAR'S HEIGHTENED PROFILE

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                  ********GULFWIRE ~ PERSPECTIVES*********
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          INFORMATION AND INSIGHTS ON MIDDLE EAST DEVELOPMENTS
             NATIONAL COUNCIL ON U.S. ARAB RELATIONS AND
        THE U.S.-GCC CORPORATE COOPERATION COMMITTEE SECRETARIAT

                             OCTOBER 27, 2002

                        QATAR'S HEIGHTENED PROFILE
                                    BY
                            JOHN DUKE ANTHONY

===========================GulfWire~~Perspectives=========================

EDITORS NOTE:

The State of Qatar: it's not very large -- a little smaller than the state
of Connecticut.  It's not very populous -- about as many citizens as
Memphis, Tennessee.  It is known to most -- outside the community of
regional specialists -- as the home of the Al Jazeera satellite broadcast
channel, if anything about it is known at all.  However little has been
known about it in the past, Qatar is emerging as a key player in Gulf
affairs and U.S. relations with the Gulf states.

What factors are bringing Qatar to the forefront of economic, political and
defense agendas among the U.S. and the Gulf states?  GulfWire publisher,
John Duke Anthony, examines the emergence of Qatar on the world's stage in
today's Perspectives.  We also provide links to additional material on Qatar
and GulfWire reporting on this important country.

Patrick W. Ryan
Editor-in-Chief, GulfWire

===========================GulfWire~~Perspectives=========================

QATARS HEIGHTENED PROFILE
By John Duke Anthony

(WASHINGTON – October 27, 2002)  With or without the recent reports of
regional opposition to some of its policies, Qatar continues to figure
prominently in regional and international news.  Not least among the reasons
is its ongoing chairmanship of the Organization of the Islamic Conference
(OIC) for the second year of a three-year term. The OIC is the largest
international organization of the 57 Islamic countries.

In this capacity Qatar remains center stage for nearly a quarter of
humanity.  This is not only because of Qatar's intensive involvement in the
many issues and interests discussed and debated by adherents to the Islamic
faith in communities and institutions globally.

It also has to do with much of the world's focus on Islam in the aftermath
of the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States and the ensuing
campaign against global terrorist networks.  As such, Qatar remains a
prominent interlocutor with international and regional organizations and, in
particular, with the United Nations, the United States and other allied
governments engaged in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and
elsewhere.

But Qatar's global profile rose considerably earlier this year for another
reason -- it significantly upgraded and expanded its defense cooperation
with the United States.  At Al-Udaid Air Base, Qatar increased exponentially
the nature and number of pre-positioned American military equipment in
accordance with its 1991 Defense Cooperation Agreement with the United
States.  In addition, for the first time, Qatar received several hundred
U.S. defense personnel for what were to have been joint military exercises,
now postponed, but when and if they do take place, many envision as a
potential prelude to a possible United States attack against Iraq.

Media Momentum

The country's pioneering news media, specifically Al-Jazeerah Television,
remains a major source not only of fast-breaking news and insight regarding
world affairs, but also, of regional and international comment as a result
of its frequent no-holds-barred approach to many controversial issues.

American and Israeli critics repeatedly charge the station's management with
irresponsibly airing negative views of Israeli and American foreign
policies. The primary reference of such complaints continues to be the
program's graphic portrayals of the Israeli military using hi-tech U.S.
manufactured weaponry to attack Palestinian civilians and what many guest
commentators claim to be President Bush's unequivocal support for many of
the policies and positions of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Fellow Arab countries such as Bahrain, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia have taken
issue with the program for different reasons – mainly its frequent
criticisms of their and other countries' forms of governance and various
domestic policies.  The program's managers, in their defense, cite the
principles of freedom of the press and point out how, in previous years,
much of the world had strongly criticized Qatar's and other Arab countries'
media for practicing self-censorship on newsworthy topics.

Energy Economics

Economically, Qatar continues its ascent within the ranks of the world's
major gas producers.  Already rivaling Brunei as the country with the
highest per capita income, Qatar has been widely recognized for some time as
owner of the world's third largest gas reserves.  In addition, it is well on
its way to becoming the world's leading exporter of both liquefied natural
gas as well as gas-to-liquids within the next half decade.

No less portentous in terms of the future, Qatar, situated geographically in
the heart of the GCC region, has as good a chance as any country to occupy
center stage in the growing trend towards intra-GCC industrial integration.
Hastening the day when this will come are three potentially far-reaching
developments, all of them advantageous to Qatar and its neighbors.

One is the settlement last year of the long-standing territorial dispute
between Bahrain and Qatar.  With that thorny irritant out of the way, there
is now a growing commitment between the two countries' leaders that they
should link their two peoples' economies and societies more closely through
the construction of a maritime causeway between them.

The second development is the scheduled January 1, 2003 launching of the
pan-GCC Common External Tariff (5%) and Customs Union.  The third is in the
form of efforts already underway, in the northern gulf, for Qatar to provide
low-cost gas supplies to Bahrain, to spur its industrialization, and to
Kuwait, to help fuel its power generation and desalination plants.
Simultaneously, in the southern Gulf, Qatar is providing much-needed gas to
the UAE Emirate of Dubai to fuel its energy-intensive industries.

Strategic Vision

The lessons embedded in Qatar's steady march to becoming a global energy
giant have not been lost on international business strategists.  The
country's phenomenal economic success has increasingly validated the
government's earlier path-breaking role in amassing immense foreign and
domestic investment to build the country's state-of-the art gas
infrastructure.  It has also confirmed the leadership's prescience in
concluding mutually profitable commercial export arrangements with some of
the world's most important industrial nations.

In short, Qatar's timely and decisive boldness on the economic and
investment fronts, when others were far less knowledgeable or certain of the
future, and were accordingly loathe to take on risks of such scope and
scale, has paid off handsomely.

Like nothing else, it has enabled a previously little known country to
ensure for coming generations of its citizens an ambitious domestic
development program simultaneous to becoming a formidable player in
international energy markets for the foreseeable future.

Social and Political Reforms

Qatar has also continued to pioneer on the educational front.  In addition
to implementing exchange agreements in which select American universities
have been permitted to establish branches at Qatar University, with one such
institution already having produced its first graduates, Qatar has recently
decided to establish the first Center for American Studies in the Arab
world.

In another first for the GCC region, Qatar recently announced it would soon
inaugurate a ten-year program of providing four-year, all-expenses paid
scholarships for outstanding pre-collegiate Americans keen to pursue their
undergraduate education at Qatar University.

Finally, Qatar's constitutional process proceeds apace.  Building on the
experience of the previous year's municipal elections, in which, for the
first time within the GCC region, women voted and stood as candidates, Qatar
continues to prepare for what, in 2003, will be its first national elections
for a parliament.

These developments signal the likelihood of an unusually active and high
profile coming year for Qatar, especially in light of the fact that, in late
December, it is also scheduled to host the annual heads of state summit for
the Gulf Cooperation Council and serve as chairman of the GCC's Supreme
Council for the following year.

In being part of the GCC, Qatar stands in good company.  The GCC countries,
in addition to Qatar, are Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the
United Arab Emirates.  The GCC region encompasses half of the world's proven
petroleum reserves, possesses a substantial and growing proportion of the
world's gas deposits, sits astride or adjacent to several of the world's
most vital international maritime routes, and is the site of Makkah and
Madinah, the 1.2. billion Muslim world's two holiest places.

			*			*			*

Dr. JOHN DUKE ANTHONY is President and CEO of the National Council on
U.S.-Arab Relations; Publisher of GulfWire; and Secretary of the U.S.-GCC
Corporate Cooperation Committee.  All three are Washington, D.C.-based
nonprofit and nongovenmental institutions dedicated to educating Americans
and others about the Arab countries, the Middle East, and the Islamic world.
MORE ABOUT QATAR

<<WEB LINKS>>

Qatar Country Listing - CIA Fact Book
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/qa.html

Middle East Network Information Network Listing - Qatar
http://menic.utexas.edu/menic/Countries_and_Regions/Qatar/

Library of Congress Country Study
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/qatoc.html

<<GULFWIRE LINKS>>
[Available in the GulfWire members' only web site.  This access is a bonus
for those who support GulfWire through the purchase of the GulfWire 2002
CD-ROM -- see below to link for info and to order yours.]

GulfWire Digest #168 ~~ October 28, 2002
A TINY GULF KINGDOM BETS ITS STABILITY ON SUPPORT FOR U.S.
AMERICAN MILITARY MANEUVERS IN QATAR POSTPONED
GCC INSIGHTS: GAS INDUSTRY ENHANCES QATAR'S DEVELOPMENT
http://www.arabialink.com/CDSupport/GWArchives2002/GWD/GWD_2002_10_28.htm

GulfWire Digest #167 ~~ October 21, 2002
QATAR MINISTER DEFENDS DECISION ON US PRESENCE
QATAR MAY ALLOW US USE OF AIR BASE
QATAR PLANS DISCUSSIONS ON WMD DEFENSE
EMIR URGES FORUM TO FOSTER ISLAMIC-AMERICAN DIALOGUE
http://www.arabialink.com/CDSupport/GWArchives2002/GWD/GWD_2002_10_21.htm

GulfWire Digest #166 ~~ October 14, 2002
U.S. QATAR BASE KEEPS AFGHAN FOCUS
U.S. LOOKS TO QATAR FOR IRAQ STRIKE STAGING GROUND
http://www.arabialink.com/CDSupport/GWArchives2002/GWD/GWD_2002_10_14.htm

GulfWire Digest #165 ~~ October 7, 2002
QATAR PREPARES FOR MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS
http://www.arabialink.com/CDSupport/GWArchives2002/GWD/GWD_2002_10_07.htm

GulfWire Digest #164 ~~ September 30, 2002
JAPAN IN MAJOR GAS DEAL WITH IRAN, QATAR – PAPER
http://www.arabialink.com/CDSupport/GWArchives2002/GWD/GWD_2002_09_30.htm

GulfWire Digest #163 ~~ September 16, 2002
QATAR OF 2 MINDS ABOUT A WAR, ENVOY SAYS
EVEN QATAR IS SKEPTICAL ABOUT IRAQI THREAT
QATAR WELCOMES U.S. MILITARY PRESENCE
QATAR'S TRADE SURPLUS AMOUNTS TO $1.9 BILLION IN Q2
RASGAS COMPLETED QATAR'S FIRST OPTIMIZED BIG BORE WELL
http://www.arabialink.com/CDSupport/GWArchives2002/GWD/GWD_2002_09_16.htm

GulfWire Digest #162 ~~ September 2, 2002
QATAR HAS NOT BEEN APPROACHED ABOUT A STRIKE AGAINST IRAQ--QATARI FM
QATAR FM URGES IRAQ TO ACCEPT RETURN OF WEAPONS INSPECTORS
http://www.arabialink.com/CDSupport/GWArchives2002/GWD/GWD_2002_09_02.htm

FOR MORE, GO TO:
http://www.arabialink.com/CDSupport
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IN THE GULFWIRE 2002 ON-LINE ARCHIVES.

===========================GulfWire~~Perspectives=========================

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